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withabackpackandcamera · 8 years ago

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February 12th, 2017

Day 24: The Never-Before-Seen Scenes from Egilsstadir to Akureyri!

Last night’s sleep was so, so needed after having a hard night’s sleep the previous night. I slept like a baby and didn’t want to wake up to get an early start, even though I could see the nice sunrise sky that was happening through my half-opened eyes. Oh well. But I didn’t stay in bed too long because there was just so much I thought I was supposed to do and see today. I actually hadn’t planned anything in this particular area of the country before the trip and did some very light planning while in bed this morning. The light planning was just googling “what to do between Egilsstadir and Akureyri.” And tada, the answer was found!

So, after that short planning session, I got up and had Skyr with granola and raisins for breakfast while trying to figure out my trip with Stefán. He was so very helpful as he really knows all the things in North and Northeastern Iceland like the back of his hand because of all the working, traveling, and driving he has done in his lifetime. He showed me where to go, what to see, where to avoid, etc. But luckily, the overall theme of the morning’s discussion of the trip was that the weather was staying awesome and I was lucky thus far to have such mild, spring-like weather in February.

After our discussion about the morning and our flipping through of old paper maps, Stefán offered to take me to Seyðisfjörður (or at least most of the way) so I could see the spectacular view down into the fjord from the highlands. And because he knew the area so well, I prompted agreed to let him take me! But before we could leave, he told me I would have to leave a lasting mark in the household’s guestbook, one that was made of carved wood for Stefán and Helga’s 50th birthdays. So so cool! And really gorgeous!

After finishing that, off we went into the highlands, with Stefán driving and me finally taking a break from driving myself. It was nice to be in a stable, new car that a well-seasoned Icelandic driver was driving. And you could tell he knew what he was doing because he showed no signs of hesitance while driving up the curving road into the mountains. When we got to the top of the highland area, there was a stopping point that he stopped at for me to do some photo taking. And it was a really awesome sight, one that looked from the waterfall in the highlands down a river into the valley where the little town of Seyðisfjörður was sitting on the edge of the fjord. Simply beautiful! I walked around both banks of the waterfall to take pictures from all sorts of angles. I didn’t find one particular angle better than any others, but I feel like I got some pictures I could potentially be happy about.

Before long, it was time to hit the road to get back home and for me to hit the road to Akureyri. Before I left his house, Stefán wanted to show me some of the artistic gifts he had received from people in the past, including a beautiful painting of humanity and the monster inside all of us, represented by centaurs committing different types of sins. Next, Helga took a moment to show me the pillow that she was making, telling me the story of how she lost an old pillow with a beautiful design and how she couldn’t find that design anywhere else and decided to make it on her own. Women in Iceland are just so talented, especially when it comes to sewing and knitting. Then, Stefán showed me a cool coffee table made of rocks and minerals that were native to Iceland. And these rocks symbolized the different members of the family (or so Stefán said). And lastly, he showed me a beautifully carved double duck with its four eggs, representative of his family and kids. So many cool things with such neat stories attached to them!

After taking a farewell photo of my hosts and thanking them for their kindness, I was off and on the road once again. Before getting too far into my trip, I stopped for some cheap food because I was hungry again and got a hotdog (pylsur) because it was the cheapest option. A hotdog and coke for 399 ISK. Score. So off I went after feeding myself. The weather and drive were quite nice, with colored cloudy skies most of the drive. The first part of the drive was getting through the highlands and that was difficult because of how windy it was up there. It was RIDICULOUSLY WINDY up there. So strong that I felt that my car was being pushed from the front and side by the wind. But I navigated safely through that area, no problem. Besides the wind, the area was full of mountains and valleys with snow and ice on the ground beside the road.

The next section after the highlands were the mountains. Icy, snowy mountains. And at this point, there was a good amount of ice on the roads, though they were mostly in patches from time to time. I really thank my Colorado driving experience for getting me through all that ice on the road because if I was a first time winter driver, I’d have stopped and turned around. But luckily, with my experience, I was safe and got through it fine!

While driving, I kept looking at every sign that popped up to make sure I didn’t miss any sights or cool things along the way like I had done in the past. And the first sign that caught my attention this trip: Dettifoss. Dettifoss, the largest waterfall in Europe, was about 25-30km north of the Ring Road and quite out of the way for my trip to Akureyri. This morning, my host Stefán had suggested that I don’t go visit Dettifoss this time but go next time as time was short today and the road leading to it may be icy and bad during this time of year. With those things I mind, I turned into the road that would take me there and found two Aussies just leaving the waterfall. So I asked them about the waterfall and road out to it, and they said the road was fine and Dettifoss wasn’t bad but not ridiculously cool. They also mentioned that it was extremely icy out there walking to the waterfall and that was the crappy part. But that everything would be OK if I was interested in going out to see it.

So I drove out there and sure, there were some patches of ice, but nothing too crazy. Until I got to the parking lot for Dettifoss, where the ENTIRE PARKING LOT WAS ICE. Slippery, watery ice. I saw a parking spot close to the exit that had no ice and thought that would be my best chance to escape the parking lot later on without getting stuck in ice. I parked and got out. And immediately thought “What have I gotten myself into...” The parking lot was essentially an ice-skating rink and so I had to carefully slide-walk my way over to the clear-ish sidewalk on the other side. There, I asked for directions to get to the waterfall and got an answer that basically was interpreted as… it’s not that close. So I started my crazy crazy icy journey to see Dettifoss. And Selfoss, another waterfall that I later realized was there as well. At first, I thought I was hiking to Dettifoss, but later learned that I was hiking to Selfoss first. The path to the rim of Selfoss included compacted snow, then soft snow that, when stepped on, took you probably two feet below the snow surface, then ice (and lots of ice), then watery ice, then watery snow, then more ice, and more ice and more ice, and then snow with water underneath, then rocks and ice-cold water. Yeah. It really was that ridiculously. So, I struggled for about 30-40 minutes through the ice and snow with my no-tread running shoes that had worn down over the years. I decided to wear this pair instead of my hiking boots because my running shoes had more surface area contacting the ice and I thought that might be better than my hiking boots, which had less surface area in contact with the ice.

By the time I reachedthe edge of the Selfoss (I was still quite far from the head of the waterfall), my shoes were soaked in freezing water, my socks were soaked in freezing water, my pants were somewhat soaked at the bottom, and I was tired and it was very very windy. I took some photos and sat there to rest and realized just how crazy a feat I had completed to see the waterfall. Then, of course, I see some European dude just zooming by from rock to rock in his Nikes to the very edge of the head of the waterfall. I was impressed that he went that far and made it look so easy. So I decided I’d give it a try too. But nope, I turned back pretty quickly because of how dangerous the route seemed, because of my shoes, and because of all the freezing water along the way. I decided I would just give up on taking the best possible photo of Selfoss and save it for some future summer visit.

After seeing Selfoss (which I thought was Dettifoss), I turned back to start trekking to my car and at this point realized the European guys were not yet going back to their car. So, I decided that I would follow them, and follow them I did, through ice, snow, water, and rocks until we got to an observation deck (pretty far from where I was taking photos) where people were looking out into the fantasticly huge waterfall Dettifoss. Tons of Asian photography tourists were all on the observation deck trying to get a shot of the waterfall that, despite being huge in volume, was particularly unphotogenic. So after some shots, I followed the tourists out towards the parking lot. And up until this point, I was keeping my balance pretty well despite the conditions. But it was on the way back that I miscalculated my step and came tumbling down from the rocks onto the snowy path in front of all the Asian tourists. Luckily for me, no harm done so I just continued my trek back at the same pace and finally got back to my car after all the snowy and icy treacherousness.

At this point, the sun was starting to set into a beautiful sunset sky and there was much ground to be covered, especially since I wasn’t originally planning on going to Dettifoss and wasn’t expecting the trip to be as long as it was. So, I sped through Myvatn, a geothermal hotspot with its well-known, less touristy geothermal pool/hot spring (essentially a less crowded and less expensive Blue Lagoon). And because I was running behind schedule, I also rushed by everything else and essentially missed all of the sights I wanted to see on my drive to Akureyri except Godafoss (I knew Godafoss was a waterfall I had to see, especially since it was close to the main road and was really pretty in the photos that I saw). I also skipped a lot of things in the hopes of catching Godafoss at sunset because the sunset was, at that point, becoming extraordinarily gorgeous with red-blood-celled-clouds in the sky with all shades of dark and vivid red and orange. But as I kept driving, the sunset continued to become more and more epic to the point where I just raised the white flag and gave up on making it to Godafoss with the spectacular sunset and stopped for a quick photo and view of the area. So, I stopped to take a simple photo of probably one of the most spectacular sunsets I’ve seen in awhile and was off to Godafoss right as the colors were starting to fade.

Once I got to Godafoss, I quickly looked around and realized that the vantage point for the waterfall from the parking lot was quite horrible. Not only was the view not ideal, the whole area was covered in mud making it difficult to get anywhere. Seeing that, I decided to give the other bank of the waterfall a try. So, I drove back to the other side and climbed down to a beautiful view of Godafoss from a lower vantage point. I spent quite a while taking photos of Godafoss from there and before long, the sky was really dark and the colors were really starting to fade.

I got back on the road and started towards Akureyri at a blitzing speed because I needed to get there and meet with Sigurdur, Sveinn’s friend who was helping me with housing. And before long, I was in Akureyri and following Sigurdur back to my home for the evening. This home was really a hospital-owned apartment/housing facility reserved for visiting doctors who practice in the hospital here. So, I was very fortunate to be placed here. After some chatting, Sigurdur suggested a couple of places that I could try out for dinner and I decided that, because I was so hungry and hadn’t had a good meal in awhile, that I would be willing to pay for good food tonight. In the end, I decided to go to a hamburger restaurant close by called Íslenska Hamborgarafabrikkan (The Icelandic Hamburger Factory) and got the No. 8 Morthens Burger (beef on a square brioche bun with bacon, grilled mushrooms, with garlic, cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, red onions, and Bearnaise sauce). It was good and I was full and satisfied by the end of it all. A pleasant meal at a nice but very expensive restaurant (my meal was 2395 ISK). And before leaving, I chatted with the waitress, a 20 yo girl named Tinna (sp?), for a few minutes to learn about what things I could do in Akureyri and the surrounding areas. Not too many good suggestions, unfortunately.

I eventually left the restaurant and strolled through downtown Akureyri for a little. There wasn’t much to see because everything was closed so I decided to head back to my place and call it a night.

Whew, what a crazy, tiring day. Excited for sleep.

5 Things I Learned Today:

1. Merchants used to travel 25 km between Egilsstadir and Seyðisfjörður and the sea in order to sell or deliver what they needed to sell or deliver. In order to not get lost, they would put up these stone piles/markers that would allow them to know which paths to take in the future. And to this day, those huge stone markers are still standing, probably frozen to one another. They are estimated to be upwards of 200 years old! And they are everywhere along the road!

2. Today, I learned the legendary tale of the Icelandic Worm Monster in Egilsstadir. Legend has it that long ago, there was a little girl in the valley near Egilsstadir who stumbled upon a golden ring. She took that ring and placed it in a case to keep it safe. And in that case, she also placed other things that caught her interest, in particular, a little worm that she also found in the valley. Over time, without her noticing, that worm grew and grew and grew. One day, she opened the case and saw a humongous worm and got extremely scared and threw everything, ring and all, into the lake Lagarfljot in Egilsstadir. Over time, the worm continued to grow and eventually turned into a large serpent/worm and legend has it that the golden ring became a pile of gold lying at the bottom of Lagarfljot that the large worm has continued to protect to this day.

3. Every mountain in Iceland is a volcano. That sounds a bit dangerous.

4. In 1783, the Laki Volcanic System in South Iceland erupted and caused worldwide havoc. Supposedly, the system erupted over a span of 8 months and produced a dangerous haze that covered huge parts of the world for months. The result of the catastrophe was death, poverty, and famine, all of which may have eventually contributed to the French Revolution in 1789.

5. Using the car’s feet heater to dry icy wet shoes and socks is the best idea ever. Blast it all the way for the amount of time it takes to get from one location to the next and your shoes will be ready to be soaked once more!

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